THE HISTORY BEHIND FOOLS' DAY


APRIL 2:
Following yesterday’s story about Fools’ Day I have been asked what the history behind that tradition is.
Nobody is totally sure about that. We know that India thousands of years ago had a celebration around April 1, where it was normal to tell people all sorts of stories, which were fun, but not true.  But it is unlikely that our tradition comes from there.
Most people believe that our tradition started in France in 1564.  Until then people  celebrated the arrival of the new year at different times of the year.  The traditions varied from region to region in the country. Some celebrated it around Christmas. Other on March 25. And most on April 1.  The king wanted to make an end to this mess, so with the permission from the Pope he declared that the new year started on January 1. Basta.   Many, especially the very Christian people, were dissatisfied with that. They wanted the year to begin around Easter, i.e. April 1.  And they continued to act like that.
At the time it was – like today – a habit to serve nice food at the beginning of a new year.  As long as the celebration took place around April 1, fish was always served. Why?  Because this was part of the 40 days before Easter, when it was not allowed to eat fat dishes.  So fish was on the plate.   After the change to January 1 people started making fun of the “fools”, who still wanted April 1 to be the first day of the year. You often sent “false fish” – fish dummies – to the fools.
Nowadays this tradition is still there, but in a less direct way. You try to put a paper fish on the back of others.  You pat somebody “friendly” on her or his back – and at the same time you paste a fish of paper on the back. They are called “poissons d’avril” – “April Fish”.  So when you next time meet somebody, esp. in the French speaking countries, you’d better check out, if they have a “fish” on the back. Or give them one 😊


And you did not only send the dummy fish to people. You did all you could to tell “these fools” stories, which were fun and interesting, but not true.  
This tradition moved on to Germany and later further north in the 17th century.  And in the Anglo-Saxon countries the same tradition was and is called “Fools’ Day”, the day of the April Fools.
Today the tradition about “telling stories”, which pull peoples’ legs, have been kept alive by the media.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EU's RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD

Yesterday you got my overview of the Brexit situation.   Some people think that the EU after the UK left as a member does not mean very much, does not have much influence – and should instead start a new strategy with cooperation with countries around the world, incl. the Commonwealth. To those people I want to say:   Either this assertation is put forward to stimulate the discussion for the sake of the discussion.   Or it is an effort to start a discussion far away from the realities ☹ This inspires me to make a brief overview of the role of the EU in the world. Today I will do it point by point.   Later I will go into more details on some of the points: 1.       EU is with its 466 mio. inhabitants one of the most interesting markets in the world. This was also what the Brits were told by f.ex. Australia and India, when they tried to make these countries particularly interested in their market with 66 mio. people. 2...
Read more

MY FIRST SCHOOL DAY - April 2, 1952

Image
MY VERY FIRST SCHOOL DAY -  April 2, 1952: Today ( April 2, 2021 )   it is exactly 69 – sixtynine – years ago, since I started going to school. This is a long time ago. It was in 1952. But I still remember it, as if it were yesterday. Can you understand that ? It was a wonderful, sunny morning.   I had for such a long time been looking forward to going to school.   Ok, I could already read and I could also write reasonably.   But I wanted to learn much more. And quickly! I knew that we were 4 kids in our village, who should start that day. Two girls and two boys. I knew the other three well. Remember, we lived in a small country village, where everybody knew everybody. The first school day was always sort of a party to us.   Our parents came along to the school on that first day. And we all had put our nicest clothes on, of course. Our farm was about 1 ½ km from the school.   We walked there, my parents and I.   On the way I could...
Read more

MAY 9 - EUROPE DAY

MAY 9: This day is EUROPE DAY.   The day, when the French foreign minister Robert Schuman on behalf of his government presented the so-called Schuman Plan.   Its essence was that European countries should start a very close cooperation with strong commitments, so that war between them would be impossible in the future.   How could you make war impossible? The participating countries had to give up their sovereignty over their coal and steel production and together create joint institutions, which would be responsible for the management of coal and steel in the future.   And as coal and steel are both essentials in any war, this would make war between the countries impossible. The man behind the plan was the French official, Jean Monnet. Six countries supported the proposal right away:   France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.    And the new European institution, called the European Coal and Steel Communit...
Read more